On his welcome post, David Boker - Senior Director, Business Development Group, Microsoft ACES Studio – states that “ESP is poised to revolutionize how people in all different fields learn, research, train, plan, and prepare”.David Boker also refers to MS ESP newly updated site, with a new design that he feels does a much better job of conveying what ESP is all about, and what we can do with it. The site will grow over time, and it’s the best source of information about the product itself.

“We’ve heard that people want to better understand our vision. Where do we see simulation going over the next decade? What role do we see ESP playing? While Microsoft is a big global corporation, our corner of it is filled with people who are as passionate about the future of this industry as you are. In this blog, we’ll share our thoughts about the future and give you an ongoing inside look at what we’re up to here in Redmond”, he says.“It was a wild ride getting ESP 1.0 out the door last year, and we’re already all hard at work on v2. We’re taking all the feedback we've gotten from partners, customers, and the simulation community and working to build a platform that serves even more of your needs. We’re looking forward to seeing what this blog evolves into, and thank you for joining us on our journey toward the future of simulation!”

ESP Vision

“For decades , enterprise-class simulations were stand-alone solutions designed to meet the specific needs of individual customers. These custom solutions were expensive to build, purchase, and maintain and had lengthy lead times for delivery”, says David.

“The Microsoft ESP team had an opposite vision: to create a low-cost, PC-based software development platform upon which any simulation solution could be built. Our hope was that industry solution providers and training organizations would eventually come to see ESP as technology that empowers them, simplifies their jobs, and saves them significant time and money”, he adds.Microsoft ESP at I/ITSEC 2008 – ESP Has Now an “Identity”

“At the I/ITSEC 2008 conference in early-December in Orlando, we saw many encouraging signs that our strategy is quickly gaining supporters.”

“Last year at I/ITSEC we were a brand new player in the industry, having just announced ESP. This year it was clear that people understood why we were there, what our platform offers, and what we’re trying to accomplish. The five ESP demo stations in our booth showed how ESP can be integrated with other technologies, content, functionality, and hardware.”

Emerging From a 25-Year Beta“Emerging from the 25+ year legacy of Microsoft Flight Simulator, ESP version 1.0 focused on the simulation of aviation. We've known all along that the military simulation market wants more, so at I/ITSEC 2008 we gave them a taste of what’s to come.”

“The team put together a great demo of the new ground vehicle capabilities coming in ESP 2.0, featuring a realistic MRAP training scenario. The demo received continuous high praise from people who saw how responsive we’ve been to the needs of the market.” “The great news is that our booth wasn't the only place to see ESP in action. Elsewhere on the show floor were companies demonstrating their own solutions built with ESP, including Adacel, Acron, Calytrix, NASA, Thales, SAIC and Stirling Dynamics Ltd, among others. If integration was the theme that emerged from this year’s show, it’s clear that some big players are already viewing ESP as a key component that helps makes all the integration possible”.